Not only were pitching performances from Blake Snell and Chris Sale on Monday night at Oracle Park electric, they were also microcosms.
Snell and Sale struck out 11 and 12, respectively, in Atlanta’s 1-0 victory to open a key four-game series. Snell no-hit the Braves for six innings and Sale lasted an inning longer than the Giants’ southpaw.
For the first time since 2010, Oracle Park hosted a game in which both the Giants’ starting pitcher and the starter opposite him each recorded at least 10 strikeouts. Their 23 combined strikeouts were the most by a starting pitching matchup in the ballpark’s 25-year history.
The game featured 33 total strikeouts — more than any other MLB game this season — a bug of today’s boom-or-bust brand of baseball. Both Snell and Sale epitomize it as two of the defining starters of the era: strikeout specialists who have taken advantage of the launch angle revolution and advancements in advanced pitching science.
“There’s a ton of swing-and-miss, as you saw last night,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “I think both are very aware of where the game’s going.”
Snell and Sale pair mid-90s high fastballs with bending breaking balls that break the spin rate scales. Snell has won two National League Cy Young awards and Sale is the favorite to win the honor this year.
They’re not the best starting pitchers of the past 15 years — that’d be Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw. But in a way, they represent the ways baseball has evolved the most.
Since the rise of modern analytics, pitching laboratories like Driveline, and the embracing of three true outcomes, Snell and Sale have thrived.
“Swings have changed,” Snell said after Monday’s loss. “Before — fortunately it was 2016 when I made my debut — but even earlier, it was all about average and finding a way to put the ball in play. Now it’s about slug, hitting homers and doubles. For a guy like me, knowing that, yeah, I mean I should be pretty good at striking people out. Especially because they’re trying to go deep. So there’s a lot more room for error because of how hard it is to square up a baseball.”
Not every pitcher dominates the top of the zone and reaches back for maximum effort to prioritize power over pitchability. Likewise, not every hitter aims for the fences with every swing. There are still great players, like Logan Webb and Luis Arraez, who buck new-age trends. But they’re becoming outliers.
Snell and Sale rank first and second, respectively, on the all-time strikeouts per nine innings leaderboard (and they’re separated by decimal points). The top-10 on the list is littered with active or recently retired pitchers. Current Giants lefty Robbie Ray is third. Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer rank fourth and fifth. Yu Darvish, Stephen Strasburg and Gerrit Cole also make appearances.
The only two pitchers in the top-10 that debuted before 2008 are Randy Johnson and Kerry Wood. Striking batters out at rates like Snell and Sale do is a contemporary development.
Monday night at Oracle Park encapsulated how Snell and Sale have dominated in their careers. They forced half-hearted swings. Their arsenals made hitters completely freeze at pitches down the middle.
Two separate times Snell struck out four Braves in a row. Sale punched out his 11th and 12th Giants in the seventh inning.
Sale generated 39 combined called strikes and whiffs, including 28 on his slider. Snell was one behind and similarly rode his best off-speed offering — the curveball — to swing-and-misses.
One of the common gripes about modern baseball is that too much action has been removed. When there’s fewer balls in play, there’s fewer web gems, fewer stolen bases and less strategy.
But excellent pitchers’ duels can be fun, too. Sale and Snell showed that on Monday night. The duo at the top of the all-time strikeout rate leaderboard were at the top of their games.
“The top of the zone fastballs — they’ve taken advantage of that,” Melvin said. “It’s always been hard to try to manage. So you get swing-and-misses up there. Baseball in general is going in that direction, and these two guys kind of embody it. They also have really really tough breaking balls to track, and it comes out of the same spot as their fastball. And they have other tricks up their sleeves, too.”
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